Stock Stories

Stock Stories

Samsung Electronics has been a key holding of the Platinum International Fund for the most part of the last 20 years. Over this period we've witnessed the company growing into an international leader in technological innovation, and saw its share price rise 25 times in AUD! It is an excellent illustration of the Platinum investment methodology at work.

Founded by Larry Ellison in 1977, Oracle is the dominant provider of Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS). In 1979, it launched the very first RDBMS for the commercial market for clients such as government agencies and US telecom operators. After growing to become one of the largest technology companies in the world with a vast product and solution portfolio across hardware and software, RDBMS still represents the lion’s share of Oracle’s business.

Investors have rightly remained sceptical on the prospect of any return to growth in the Cognac market in China, with similarities being drawn to the rise and the subsequent collapse of the Scotch market in Japan.

Nielsen is the biggest consumer behaviour measurement company in the world. They are best known for their panel of “Nielsen families” whose viewing habits are monitored to produce the TV ratings that decide if your favourite shows will stay on air. Their ratings data is the “currency” used by media companies and advertisers to price billions of dollars of TV advertising inventory.

Piaggio, the Italian maker of the iconic Vespa scooter, has clearly been encountering difficult conditions in its major markets of Italy, France and, to some extent, India, where the company generates more than 25% of its revenues. In Asia, Piaggio has a manufacturing facility in Vietnam supplying that market and with potential to further their entry into the significant Indonesian market. It is relatively easy to be optimistic about their opportunity in a reinvigorated India or even the scale of the South-Eastern Asian markets. However, with 45% of revenues from Europe, it is the Italian and other major European markets that will determine the company’s near-term returns.

Japanese pharmaceutical companies are going through similar issues as their global peers experienced several years ago, although Japanese companies are unable to execute aggressive restructuring at home.

Bank regulation doesn’t excite most people. Subjects like capital adequacy, liquidity coverage ratios and counterparty valuation adjustments are dry, even downright boring. Most in the investment community share these sentiments, which is precisely what attracts us to the subject.